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September 9, 2011

Best Vitamins and Supplements for Women

Healthy Foods
Best Vitamins and Supplements for Women

By Leanne Ely, CNC

This is a shout out to all you ladies out there! While most of us are diligent about eating correctly and ensuring the right foods are in our regular diets, we still need to address vitamins (in the form of supplements). It’s an unfortunate fact of life these days; as much as we try, we simply are not going to get enough of what we need from our food to obtain optimal health. Food today isn’t the same as food of yesterday. The soil is depleted of its nutrients and our environment is polluted–we need more nutrition than ever to combat the daily stress of life.

Calcium plays a major role in women’s health. Calcium is the main mineral responsible for building up your bones and protecting you against osteoporosis. If you’re a younger woman, below the 25-years old or have a daughter that’s younger, make sure you’re increasing your intake of calcium. I’ve always said you want to be taking about 1,200 mg in your younger years to build up your bones while they’re still growing and after 25, you should reduce it to about 800 mg a day.

But two other caveats with calcium–make sure you have at least a 3:1 ratio of calcium to magnesium, and make sure you also have adequate vitamin D levels (ask your doctor to test yours next time you go in for a check-up). All of these factors are crucial.

Don’t forget about vitamin A, a critical building block for the immune system. Vitamin A also helps with tooth and bone formation, and even protects your vision. And one more little factoid about vitamin D is that it may control PMS symptoms! Oh yes ladies, something with that kind of power exists in a form other than chocolate, LOL.

So take your supplements already! This is a part of a healthy lifestyle.